We just came from Disney Dream cruise, 4 nights - Port Canaveral-Bahamas-Castaway Cay. It was our first ever cruise experience so there were so many concerns and questions about what are we going to expect from the trip. I think we did pretty good preparation to find out minute details about everything, mainly from internet reviews from past travelers. When we booked it about 5 months ago we only knew that Disney would be our better choice based on fact that we had 4 years old in our party. And when our ship received first award from cruisecritic.com in overall and in many categories, we were delighted that we have made the right decision. Because it was our first experience, we were mainly looking for more on inside-ship fun and little less emphasis on pricing, destination choice…etc. This review may contain some things that are common and granted for many other cruise lines, but I have had no way to compare.

The most important tip we followed was that to arrive at port city a day before. Our flight was delayed so we arrived few hours later than scheduled. So, no matter what, try to arrive a day before or you may risk of losing large amount of money. Cruise lines do not want you to have picture of ship sailing away.

Stateroom: We had Ocean view family deluxe with verandah room. Since we had young kid we planned to spend some time on balcony (they call it verandah at Disney) watching water and may be have meal. The room was specious and everything was placed in right location. I can definitely say that Disney did some homework to use stateroom area effectively. Not a single thing was broken or in less than perfect working condition. Shower room and Toilet was split so large party can get ready in shortest amount of time. TV had so many Disney and other movies on-demand – all completely free. Bed was spacious and there was additional bed in case we needed. Sofa was also pull on so we can have another (3rd!) bed. Since main bed was little bit higher, there was so much room under it to store our bags. Overall, Stateroom had all things a decent hotel should have. I liked that we had midship stateroom, so we could go to any place on ship in short amount of time. Deck 10 was our choice so many of the things were in close proximity – Pools, Lunch. But still it is okay to have room anywhere on the ship as it is very convenient to get to any place with short amount of time. The wave phone idea is great that you can contact other wave phone from anywhere on the ship as well as on the Castaway Cay Island. I wish the coverage area covered most of my 5K track while I was running. One thing I observed from the room is that if you made customized arrangement of your room on the first day, such as you moved table, chair to specific location, staff will keep it at that location so you don’t have to move it again – minor detail but nice! Read more